Just the latest way for Republicans to tell everybody they’ve given up on democracy.
They haven’t “given up” on democracy.
They’re lighting it on fire and dancing its grave.
“If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy,” - David Frum.
The US now, more than at any time I can remember, seems to be polarized into two groups who absolutely despise each other. Why not be honest and declare the experiment a failure? Split the country in two and go on with your lives.
We’re not conveniently geographically separated though, it’s more of a rural/urban divide and despite what a lot of people think the two areas actually rely on each other. Try growing corn in a city or educating competent medical/engineering workforce in a small town and you’ll run into logistical issues pretty quickly.
Removed by mod
more than in 1861? I find that hard to believe.
and before you say you don’t remember then: no.
When I said “I can remember” I was specifically referring to living memory for me (as a 40yo), not to ancient history going back to the civil war.
I have heard people talking about a potential looming second civil war. When I see Supreme Court justices openly taking sides in political debates I start to wonder what will be next.
“ancient history” lol.
The last civil war widow only died a few years ago (Dec 16, 2020).
But the democrats aren’t giving me exactly what I want! Clearly these people are better. /s
They’re giving me what I want, but not fast enough! Everything must be done instantly in a snap of a finger. I must teach them a lesson! /s
Steady improvement is not enough! I demand perfection right now or I will vote Republican and watch this world burn!
What exactly about where we are as a nation says “steady improvement” to you? Who knew that asking democrats not to fund a genocide was demanding “perfection”.
The president isn’t telling people to inject bleach anymore.
I remember when gay people couldn’t get married. I remember when I never saw a fellow trans person on TV who wasn’t a fictional depiction of a serial murderer played by a cis guy. I remember when we almost never had cops caught on camera so their brutality was an open secret.
But ‘steady’ is a bit inaccurate.
I’ve seen actual people with family from Gaza online say that they want Biden re-elected because he may suck balls, but Trump will outright throw protestors into concentration camps.
Like… Trump outright said he’s bringing the next Reich. And loves this murdering Palestine people business. So yeah, this is a trolley problem where on one track you run over some people, and on the next track you… run over those same people plus extra. So in this context, saying you’re going to refuse to switch tracks to save anyone whatsoever is indeed kinda demanding perfection in a situation where the only options are horrifically flawed and no one really wants to do them, but if we had wanted to really do something about it, we all shoulda fucking voted in the primaries.
That, and also maybe this whole thing could have been avoided if Sanders hadn’t made some guffaws. I know he successfully pissed me off and all he needed to do was not go talk to a talk show host with known transphobia and that painful comment about Black southerners. Who knew it turned out that asking Sanders not to support transphobes was demanding perfection?111? /sVery smooth, blaming Sanders for his political kneecapping carried out by the very people you’re advocating for. “It’s not that establishment democrats are opposed to actual progress because progress robs their corpo candidates of their cover and endless funding cheat, it’s not that there’s an entire corporate media structure invested in backing the DNC establishment, it’s Sanders fault for his ‘guffaws’, like calling for healthcare reform and advocating for civil rights.”
Give me a break. The lesser of two evils thing is played out, it’s precisely what brought us right to this point. It’s time for neolibs to wake up, there is no way to avoid what is coming by voting for more corporate careerist shitheads, it doesn’t work. There is no “comfortable” way of weathering the confrontation with fascism that needs to happen.
Do yourself a favor and buy yourself a gas mask.
Just so you know, when you say shit like this you sound exactly like the MAGA lovers that are frothing at the mouth for the start of violence because then “they have to take our country back”.
There’s plenty of ways to avoid fascism that doesn’t involve just letting the world burn because you’re upset it isn’t perfect.
No one is “frothing at the mouth for violence”, violence is here, people are getting ready to face the consequences of your complicity.
Nobody fucking wants to have to confront fascists and protest and riot, people want a normal life, unfortunately that is not going to be possible given the situation you’ve put us all in with your politics. Neolibs have ignored the political fight they were charged with and instead tried to sweep it under the rug so they could keep cashing those lobby checks, and now the disease literally cannot be ignored and has metastasized into literal fascism.
Vote for Biden all you want, I’m trying to warn you that it’s too late whether he wins or not, and you need to wrap your head around the reality of what you’re dealing with. No amount of jelly-spined fascist lite democrats are going to get us out of this hole, and the longer you labor under that delusion the more the fascism takes root.
“Neolib.” *drink!*
(Not really. If I started playing a drinking game on YOUR bullshit, I’d die of alcohol poisoning.)
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, defends genocidal presidents like a duck…
The Supreme Court just ruled that racial gerrymandering is ok as long as it’s intended to advantage one party over the other. They gave a thumbs up to rigging elections and fundamentally undermining democracy and described it as a legitimate purpose. And if that wasn’t enough, they went on to rule that courts must tip the scales in favor of politicians who are defending against charges of racial discrimination, even if the evidence overwhelmingly supports the accusation, adding unique barriers to racial gerrymandering cases so that they are essentially impossible to win. That decision took away the one remaining tool that was available to fight the GOPs national strategy of going all in on gerrymandering and locking in power in every state they can.
Now, I’m sure you can probably think of other Supreme Court decisions that the current 6-3 court has made which were not exactly great. And those will keep rolling in until the make up of the court changes, which could happen at any time. If Trump gets to appoint another justice or two, he’d likely be able to lock in the right leaning majority for decades.
The undermining of democracy and the extremism of the Supreme Court should be reason enough to recognize that the damage Trump can do would outlast whatever political calculus goes into the next Democratic primary. But add to that his stated intention to eliminate the norms of that keep the justice department and IRS independent so that he can weaponize the entire executive branch to attack his rivals and carry out his petty Vendettas. Add his open hostility to NATO and Ukraine, and his unwavering support for Putin even as he threatens further military aggression. And let’s not forget his stated plans to rollback environmental regulations. Oh, and let’s not forget the part about how he’s planning on rounding up millions of people and putting them in camps. Plus, you know, the fact that he’s siding with Israel all the way, and doesn’t give two shits about genocide in Palestine or anywhere else. And that’s ignoring the crazier shit he might do.
Give me a break. The lesser of two evils thing is played out, it’s precisely what brought us right to this point. It’s time for neolibs to wake up, there is no way to avoid what is coming by voting for more corporate careerist shitheads, it doesn’t work. There is no “comfortable” way of weathering the confrontation with fascism that needs to happen.
You going to go out there and gun down the bastards? Because they don’t give a fuck about protests. They’re happy to send cops in to assault protestors, and then use the protests as fuel for fundraising. If you want to have an effect, your options are voting and political participation (potentially including protests), or a whole lot of assassinations. Unless you think that some signs and gas masks will somehow solve the partisan divide and bring the people together in a massive unified front that can overthrow the government and all it’s entrenched interests, and that this is somehow more plausible than being able to convince people to support better candidates in primaries and at the state and local level.
The court is locked in as right leaning for decades. The only mitigation here would be expanding the court, which Biden and establishment dems refuse to even entertain. Those are your “champions”. It’s literally the only way to fix the court on a reasonable timescale and they’ve shown no indication that they will ever do that because in their tiny little peanut brains we’re still back in the 90s where everyone is still pretending that the courts are “apolitical”.
Nothing you’re saying here is compelling.
You going to go out there and gun down the bastards?
Pre-emptively? No. But ask yourself this; how should citizens react to concentration camps in their country? How should people react when fascists start jailing and executing dissidents? How should moral people respond to genocide done in their name? Your mentality needs to evolve now to become that of resistance, because when the system finally gasps its last you’re not going to be able to keep cowering behind the lesser if two evils, you’re going to have to join the fascists or actually take a stand. You need to prepare for that eventuality.
The question is of when fascists get into power, not if. The goal is to make that stay in power as short as possible and do all the things we should’ve done at the end of the Civil War. Fascists prey and feed on the “moderate liberal” mindset, that’s what allows them to keep edging the line further and further and hiding behind “decorum” and other nonsense.
You have to understand that neoliberals have already fucked us over these last decades by doing what you’re doing right now (telling people vote lesser of two evils, shielding the spineless democratic establishment from political consequences, helping propagate neoliberal rhetoric etc.) We’re here because of neoliberal apologists and chronic political negilgence.
So when fascists get control there will be no other option to stop the momentum except direct confrontation. Which will include all manner of civil unrest. Yes, that is extreme and undesirable but that’s where we are at; an extreme inflection point at which fascists are actively taking over our institutions and establishment Dems are letting it happen. It has been in the works for decades.
The question then is will the American people be in a mindset to actually resist or will they be like the citizens in places like China – cowed, resigned and worn down into complacency by the slow, grinding creep of gradual fascism, any memory of what a free society actually looks like erased from their collective memories.
If fascists are to gain control it is better that their hand be forced quickly so perhaps the shock will wake people like you up and the fascists have less time to lay further groundwork. People who are in a comfortable bubble need to experience the consequences that, up until now, have been shouldered by the minorities and groups that those same middle-class neolibs claim to support. Fascism needs to be definitively banished and we cannot do that that in the political climate that neolib “moderates” create.
The alternative is fascism continues to creep into every nook and cranny of our society over the course of a generation and society acclimates to it. There will be ash clouds over our cities and idiots will still be babbling about “We just need to elect the lesser of two evils”. No, force the fascists into the open now, force people to experience it and confront it now, to choose a side definitively, not continue to bury their heads in the sand and elect do nothing dipshit genocidal establishment Democrats.
We cannot keep rewarding democrats who won’t fight, who keep maligning progressives and talking about finding middle ground with the fascists. Voting for those politicians is not useful, it’s counter-productive. Being fascist-lite isn’t cutting it and that needs to be demonstrated materially to the DNC before it’s too late because either they need to stop sabotaging and running from their progressive base or they’re useless.
Dems needs control of all 3 (house of reps, senate, and presidency) to get much done. They have had that for, drumroll please, … 4 years of the last 24 years. 4 fucking years of the last 24 fucking years. And you wonder why improvement is slow? You want progress? Vote.
(If you include Bill Clinton, they have had it for 6 years of the last 32 years. Before that was Bush and Reagan, so 6 of the last 44 years.)
An interesting historical footnote: before Reagan won in 1980, Democrats had maintained control of both houses of Congress since the 1954 election. That’s 26 consecutive years. Go back even further and Republicans had managed to take control of Congress only twice between 1932 and 1954. And it didn’t matter whether a Republican or Democrat was President – Congress was reliably controlled by Democrats, with only a handful of exceptions over nearly 50 years.
This is why we still talk about the “Reagan Revolution”. It’s not just about Reagan himself, but about the new ability of Republicans to win enough seats to have a say in Congress. And even then, Republicans couldnt win the House until 1995 and Newt Gingrich became the first Republican Speaker since 1955.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_divisions_of_United_States_Congresses
I’d point out here that before 1980, and especially before 1970, Democrats were a completely different breed. Don’t forget that the Democrats had the Dixiecrats as a major constituent. These people are now the core voters of the GOP, and have held the Solid South since 1865. So you could say racist shitheads have ran the congress since 1932.
So right when progress ended huh.
They had a supermajority under Obama, who had promised before hand that the first thing on his list was legislating abortion access.
Instead they helped pass a GOP crafted bill that forced people to buy private insurance.
The establishment democrats do not want progress, they want the appearance of progress while running in place and they will always pull a convenient Joe Manchin or Sinems out of their hat to avoid backing up their promises with actual, effective action that produces long-term change.
4 months under Obama. 4 MONTHS. Not years, MONTHS. 4 months the last 44 fucking years the dems have had super majority.
They used it for the Affordable Care Act. Nice attempt to reframe that. Even better than the right’s Obamacare. All so you can set up a strawman that they secretly don’t want progress. If the GOP liked ACA so much, then why have they spent the last 14 years trying to repeal it? Hint: they hate it.
So we’re back to what I said. You want progress? How about giving them control for more than 4 fucking months out of the last 44 fucking years. Nah, you want to suggest they secretly don’t want progress lol. You want no Manchin and no Sinema? Vote so that Dems consistently win and then more progressive candidates can win. (Besides the very obvious if there were more Dems in Senate, then Manchin and SInema wouldn’t have any power.)
They used it for the Affordable Care Act. Nice attempt to reframe that.
It should be reframed because very few people undersrand that the ACA is literally a massive gift to private insurers. It’s why they were onboard. Not only was it great for them because it forced people into buying useless high deductible private insurance that covered nothing, it was a dead end that couldn’t possibly lead to further reforms.
Trump eliminating the mandate was the one good thing that came out of his term.
If the GOP liked ACA so much, then why have they spent the last 13 years trying to repeal it
The exact same reason they aren’t accepting Biden’s offer to help them fulfill their right-wing wishlist of border policies; it’s more politically beneficial to pretend to oppose it. It’s one of the oldest tactics in the book; stomp and scream and yell about the tiniest thing and your milquetoast “bipartisan” dipshit opponent won’t dare to pushback.
The right is always framing in the way that benefits them most, and you’re falling right into it.
That is a two part problem.
-
The Dems only had the super majority because they were aligned with Independent senators, so they didn’t actually have a supermajority.
-
At least one of the Dems was opposed to national healthcare because he was a piece of shit, and they feared getting rid of the filibuster to pass single payer because apparently Dems don’t understand that the GOP is based on obstruction.
Dems need to get rid of the filibuster so they can actually accomplish things when they hold all three branches. Actually doing things would garner them more votes!
-
Other planks call abortion homicide and gender-transition care “child abuse.”
🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔
This is REALLY scary because a lot of conservative states have also been trying to add the death penalty as punishment for child abuse. Anyone with half a mind can see where this is going. Florida started this trend, and we all know how kill-happy Texas is.
Florida also tried to reduce the number of jurors needed to execute someone from 12 to
98Are you saying they’re reducing jury size? The Supreme Court ruled years ago that non-unanimous criminal convictions are unconstitutional, but I guess they can just change the rules at any moment to undo that like so much else they’re at work on overturning.
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday that will no longer require juries agree unanimously to recommend death sentences, reducing the number of jurors need to recommend a death sentence to the lowest threshold of any state with capital punishment.
SB 450 reduces the number of jurors needed to recommend a death sentence from 12 to 8.
The unanimous requirement is for convictions. A separate jury is usually convened for sentencing, and is not necessarily required to be unanimous.
They can collectively take their bibles and shove them ALL THE WAY up their asses. Fuck them for wasting time and money doing this stupid shit.
support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.
Also these, which… Fucking morons. Who the fuck is going to pay for things in gold? Especially because at this point, cash is more of an accessory than a primary payment method.
this is what you get when you rely on nutters more and more for your base. it will be interesting to see what makes it to the final product.
But… both… sides?
/s
Republican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties.
Other proposed planks of the 50-page platform included proclamations that “abortion is not healthcare it is homicide”; that gender-transition treatment for children is “child abuse”; calls to reverse recent name changes to military bases and “publicly honor the southern heroes”; support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.
Some of this is hateful, abusive shit like abortion and transition healthcare. Some of the else is dumbfuckery at the highest level like gold/silver standard and UFO info. Texas is a failed state if they pass any of this shit.
Perhaps the most consequential plank calls for a constitutional amendment to require that candidates for statewide office carry a majority of Texas’ 254 counties to win an election, a model similar to the U.S. electoral college.
Under current voting patterns, in which Republicans routinely win in the state’s rural counties, such a requirement would effectively end Democrats’ chances of winning statewide office.
Oh cool they want to make it so the rural idiots in bumfuck can hold up statewide elections? Cool. Other states should pass a law making all elections beholden to state-wide popular vote. Seeing as most of the country isn’t right-wing, that would ensure Republicans don’t see another seat outside of red states again. Obviously /s but fuck Republicans, the traitorous, undemocratic fucks.
Seeing as most of the country isn’t right-wing
Are you talking population or land area? Because only one of those matters and it’s not population.
state-wide popular vote. Seeing as most of the country isn’t right-wing
Population. Based on what I was proposing…it would matter.
Because only one of those matters and it’s not population.
Sorry, are you saying land area matters more than population and That you support that? Or that it’s just the way it currently is?
Historically, there has never been a peaceful solution to an infestation of conservatives. They will oppress and kill as many normal people aa they can if they are not stopped.
Supreme Court: I sleep
Sotomayor: cries
and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.
Oh, well, now that Texas is asking, I’m sure the truth will come out. Maybe they should ask for the truth about the JFK assassination, too!
I’m just glad to see they’ve moved on from chemtrails.
Unfortunately they moved from chemtrails to meth rails.
Maybe they should ask for the truth about the JFK assassination, too!
Oh - ha ha! Ahhh hehe what a kidder, right folks? ha ha! No . . uhh - no, we’re not going to do that. Um. No need. case closed. HEY IS THAT A SQUIRREL?
these clowns have shifted so far to the right, they’re in danger of falling off the edge of the earth.
Too bad the earth is round, then.
Holding out hope the earth has some meta narrative baked in, so that if you believe it’s flat, you can fall off
We should be so lucky.
Damn Texas is so free that they are becoming Russian with politics.
For those that moved to Texas because “cheaper”, hope you enjoy your cheap knockoff freedom.
Specifically, this bible:
Well, that is a good looking book. Nice craftsmanship.
Oh wait… the contents? Damn. Thought they might respect the art of a foreigner.
LMAO.
Yee fuckin haw
thats because yees the top and haws the bottom.
